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The Importance of a Notebook

What is the most important piece of gear for you in your bag? Your camera? Some nice Zeiss or L-series glass? While all this is nice, for me, the most important piece of gear in my bag is my notebook; it comes everywhere with me.

But why would I prioritise that over everything else?

Whilst it’s true that I couldn’t physically do my job without a camera and some kind of lens, that notebook is where all of my ideas go; the idea for this post started in my notebook. All my ideas for videos, short films, photoshoots and blog posts all start there. Once its written, the goal of the finished project becomes much closer to reality. Once written the vision becomes a reality.

My process for planning in a notebook goes as follows:

I have pages at the front of the notebook which are big lists of project titles, categorised by the type of project (Photoshoots, Video ideas, Short films).

When it comes time to develop ideas, each project gets its own double page spread in the notebook so that it can be planned.

On the page, It will be split up into different elements such as costume (for photoshoots or short films) or narrative points for videos.

Theres no right or wrong way to use a notebook, but I do believe that they are in invaluable resource for all creatives.